middle school testing

I hate computer testing. Things never go smoothly no matter how much you anticipate potential problems. Today math testing was online on laptops in my room. In addition to my 23 kids I had seven kids join me from another class – to fill the 30 computers that make up the mobile lab. No big deal – I know all the kids and they seem to take the testing pretty seriously (surprising because middle schoolers are tested to death).

This whole testing week has been a planning fiasco in my eyes. It sort of makes sense but it is also a huge pain. We have or third period class every day for two hours. Every day they are taking a different test. Yesterday was civics. In order to give the civics test, I need a test and a kid-specific bubble sheet for each student. Each teacher gets bubble sheets for all the students that they test. So I get all my science sheets – I have to figure out who those students have for third period, sort my 100 sheets into piles for each of those third period teachers and then hand them out. So for civics I got shee3ts from 3 of the 4 civics teachers that I had to hand out. The kids had to write their civics teacher’s name on their test, because after testing all the bubble sheets and tests had to be resorted to be given back to those civics teachers. PAIN.

So thirty kids ih my room who all need scrap paper and pencils and laptops. You would think kids would have scrap paper and pencils – but frustrating as it is this is not so. Then they need a calculator, and depending on what math they are in depends on the kind of calculator they get. As I was setting up this morning, I realized that I had no calculators. So I left my students unattended and went to figure out who in the building I was supposed to get them from. Found them in 6th grade and carted them back to my room. Students also need a formula sheet – which could be different depending on which math class they are in. Because I had students added to my room I had to send someone to get some more of those. And then a log in card and did I mention a working laptop computer?

And that computer has to work and be able to get on the internet. Poor Sandy. I ended up switching his computer three times before we got one that logged on to the network.

Turns out that the whole set up that had been in my room since yesterday afternoon that was plugged in – was not actually getting power. So the reason they all had trouble getting on the internet is because mine wasn’t working and the few computers that were accessing the network were doing it trough another set up down the hallway. As I type this students are testing on computers with batteries that are less than half full. I am waiting for them to die one by one when the students are not even halfway done with testing.

Anyway. They are all working away. The fast kids are two thirds of the way done. Then I still have them until 10:15 and then a shortened schedule for tomorrow. Today I made a review exercise all based on the Easter bunny. Did you know that Easter grass (that plasticy tangle of fake grass) is made by bombarding uranium with Easter eggs? Did you know that the Easter bunny colors eggs by refracting light through a prism and bathing the eggs in a rainbow?